■ India
Couple names boy `Tsunami'
Grateful that the killer wave of Dec. 26 spared his life, a couple in southern India have named their baby boy Tsunami, it was reported on Monday. When the tsunami hit their beachfront home in Tamil Nadu state two weeks ago, Stalin and his wife Jesurani ran for safety carrying their two-month-old baby, the Asian Age news-paper reported. They lost the child in a stampede of people rushing to higher ground. The couple searched for their baby among hundreds of bodies along the shoreline before being told he had been rescued and left at the local church. Jesurani said neighbors told her that the baby was passed from one person to another as they ran to escape the waves.
■ Thailand
Singer worried for orphans
Pop star Ricky Martin is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and Foreign Minister Surakiat Sathirathai today to raise concerns for children orphaned by the Dec. 26 tsunami, officials said yesterday. Martin, who runs the Ricky Martin Foundation -- a charity for orphans, will also visit Phuket and other beach resorts in the country that bore the brunt of the tsunami disaster. "He is here to express his concerns about what happened, so the meeting with the prime minister and foreign minister will highlight that message," said a foreign ministry spokesman.
■ China
Baby's parents spurn deals
The family of a baby boy named China's 1.3 billionth citizen has turned down advertising deals from firms making everything from diapers to infant formula, state media said on Monday. Many companies contacted Zhang Yichi's parents, hoping the boy would act as an "image representative" for their products, Xinhua news agency said, quoting the Beijing Daily Messenger. The family turned down all the invitations, except the offer of insurance. "It's lucky to be China's 1.3 billionth citizen," the baby's father was quoted as saying. "But it's unnecessary to act as an image representative for so many products, since Zhang Yichi is too young and too many commercial activities will have negative impact on the boy's healthy growth."
■ Australia
Guide faulted in croc swim
A tour guide who invited foreign tourists to swim in crocodile-infested waters acted in a "grossly negligent" manner that led to the death of a German visitor, a coroner's report said yesterday. Isabel von Jordan, 23, drowned in October 2002 after being mauled by a 5m-long, 500kg crocodile while swimming with other tourists in Kakadu National Park. Von Jordan had been holidaying in northern Australia after surviving the terrorist bombings in Bali only days before the croc attack. Tour guide Glenn Robless, who told the group it was safe to swim, pleaded guilty in 2003 to a charge of making a dan-gerous omission that caused von Jordan's death. He was given a three-year suspended prison sentence.
■ Malaysia
Counterfeiting gang nabbed
Police believe they have crippled a major syndicate involved in producing counterfeit money with the arrest of eight South African nationals, police and a news report said yesterday. Two of the suspects had approached a businessman last week and persuaded him to part with more than 600,000 ringgit (US$157,895) after promising to double the amount using "money-making expertise," a police spokesman said.
■ Argentina
Flag-tramplers charged
A Briton, an Australian and a South African arrested and jailed for trampling a flag flying outside an Argentine Falklands war veteran's bar were released on bail, officials said on Monday. David Fleming, 20, Benjamin Sargent, 28, and Darren Redden, 28, were arrested Jan. 6 in Ushuaia, the most southerly city in Argentina, and held on federal charges of desecrating the national flag. The trio had been heavily drinking at a wine bar owned by Pablo Vina -- who fought in the 1982 war when Britain ejected an Argentine force that invaded the remote South Atlantic islands -- when they noticed the flag flying outside. The tourists opened a window to tear the flag down, then walked outside, trampled it and threw it in a waste bin, witnesses said.
■ Germany
Soldier faces abuse charges
The first British soldier to be charged with abuse of Iraqi prisoners appeared before a court martial in Germany on Monday, but the judge imposed a news blackout. Three other British soldiers are due to appear before a similar military court in Osnabrueck today. The four members of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers are alleged to have abused Iraqi civilians who they were temporarily holding near the southern city of Basra. British media reports said the soldiers are alleged to have stripped and humiliated their prisoners and taken photographs of the incident, which took place in a warehouse in May 2003.
■ Israel
Flying jets bad for teeth
Flying fighter jets isn't good for your teeth. About 70 percent of Israel's air force pilots suffer from "bruxism," or jaw clenching and teeth grinding, according the soldier's weekly, Bamahane. The results were based on a study of 57 young, healthy pilots by the Israeli air force medical branch, the weekly reported in its current edition. Bruxism, which can cause pain and permanent dental damage, can be triggered by tension, and flying military planes is a tense business, the weekly said.
■ Hungary
Rare bird smuggler busted
Hungarian customs guards discovered the carcasses of 511 rare birds hidden in the car of an Italian man about to cross the border into Austria, police said on Monday. The guards found the birds in two coolers in the trunk of the man's car during a routine check near Ronok, 250km west of Budapest on Sunday, police spokeswoman Gyorgyi Natkai said in a statement. Among the birds -- valued at 5.1 million forints (US$27,000) -- were yellow wagtails, field larks, sparrows and pipits. Customs guards regularly seize the carcasses of protected birds bound for Italy, where smugglers can sell them at high prices to restaurants.
■ France
Priest charged with fondling
French prosecutors on Monday demanded a six-month prison term for a former Orthodox priest charged with fondling a British boy who spent Christmas with him in 1999. Monsignor Paul, born Peter Alderson, denied accusations he abused the British boy, then 11, saying he only "helped him undress" and "rubbed his back a little" when the boy was bathing. The boy, who lost his parents and was under the care of his grandmother who had made the acquaintance of Paul, was not present at the trial and was "on the run" according to his lawyer.
Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg was deported from Israel yesterday, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, the day after the Israeli navy prevented her and a group of fellow pro-Palestinian activists from sailing to Gaza. Thunberg, 22, was put on a flight to France, the ministry said, adding that she would travel on to Sweden from there. Three other people who had been aboard the charity vessel also agreed to immediate repatriation. Eight other crew members are contesting their deportation order, Israeli rights group Adalah, which advised them, said in a statement. They are being held at a detention center ahead of a
A Chinese scientist was arrested while arriving in the US at Detroit airport, the second case in days involving the alleged smuggling of biological material, authorities said on Monday. The scientist is accused of shipping biological material months ago to staff at a laboratory at the University of Michigan. The FBI, in a court filing, described it as material related to certain worms and requires a government permit. “The guidelines for importing biological materials into the US for research purposes are stringent, but clear, and actions like this undermine the legitimate work of other visiting scholars,” said John Nowak, who leads field
NUCLEAR WARNING: Elites are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers, perhaps because they have access to shelters, Tulsi Gabbard said After a trip to Hiroshima, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday warned that “warmongers” were pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war. Gabbard did not specify her concerns. Gabbard posted on social media a video of grisly footage from the world’s first nuclear attack and of her staring reflectively at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. On Aug. 6, 1945, the US obliterated Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people in the explosion and by the end of the year from the uranium bomb’s effects. Three days later, a US plane dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, leaving abut 74,000 people dead by the
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to visit Canada next week, his first since relations plummeted after the assassination of a Canadian Sikh separatist in Vancouver, triggering diplomatic expulsions and hitting trade. Analysts hope it is a step toward repairing ties that soured in 2023, after then-Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau pointed the finger at New Delhi’s involvement in murdering Hardeep Singh Nijjar, claims India furiously denied. An invitation extended by new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to Modi to attend the G7 leaders summit in Canada offers a chance to “reset” relations, former Indian diplomat Harsh Vardhan Shringla said. “This is a
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